Roofs of air supported fabric panel construction, for example of the type disclosed in Geiger U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,772,836 and 3,835,599, have been constructed on large structures such as athletic stadiums and field houses as these roofs provide an unobstructed interior of large size. A problem which has been encountered with such roof constructions, however, is that of partial or total collapse of the roof as a result of excessive loading due to snow accumulation. In order to prevent such collapse, manual removal of snow from the roof structure has been resorted to. Typically, it is necessary for workers to climb upon the roof to manually shovel snow therefrom and, in view of the facts that the roof is snow and ice covered, slopes, and does not provide a rigid surface on which to move, the likelyhood of accidents is great. It is also possible that during the snow removal operations, the roof fabric may become torn, with the consequence that the worker is liable to fall through the resulting rent in the roof. As the height of these roof structures above the interior floor is great, such a fall is at least highly dangerous.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a safety rigging system for use by workers moving on the exterior of inflated roof structures and which allows their movement to any point on the roof surface and safe retreat therefrom in the event of a slip and fall.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a safety rigging system for inflatable roof structures which is effective to safely restrain a worker in the event a roof panel is rent or otherwise damaged.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a rigging system which is readily adaptable to existing roof structures or which may be incorporated into an inflatable roof structure at the time of construction.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a safety rigging system which is usable by workers moving on the roof without undue encumberence and which allows the hands to be free at all times for work or self-recovery from a slip or fall.